The Valiant - Michael Jan Friedman [63]
Picard glanced at his communications officer. Mr. Paxton?
Paxton responded without looking up. Im relaying the information to Lieutenant Vandermeer now, sir.
Actually, Williamson interjected, you may want to consider accompanying your medical officer. At some point, Commander, you and I will need to speak in person. It might as well be now.
Sir, said Paxton, before Picard could give the colonist an answer, Lieutenant Vandermeer says shes located the hexagonal plaza.
Acknowledged, the second officer responded.
Ben Zoma, who had returned to the engineering console, whispered, Youre not going down there without a security escort, are you?
Picard glanced at him. It was the type of sentiment he might have expressed to Captain Ruhalter just a few days earlier. But somehow, it sounded less urgent when one was on the other side of the rail.
He turned back to the colonist. I would like to take you up on that, he said diplomatically. However, I am not the only one who would like to speak with you.
Bring whomever you wish, Williamson responded. Even a security team, if you feel you need one. But as youll see, Commander, we no longer have any reason to deceive you.
After their experience with Santana, Picard had no business believing Williamson. But for some reason, he did.
11
CHAPTER
Evening had already fallen on the colonists continent when Jean-Luc Picard and his entourage beamed down from the Stargazer.
The second officer could have accompanied Greyhorse and Santana to the medical facility as he originally intended. However, he had instead accepted Shield Williamsons invitation to meet him in his offices.
Picard was instantly pleased that he had made that choice. Looking out from a semicircular balcony, he found himself gazing at the most impressive city he had ever seen.
It was sleek, elegant, magnificent in scale a titanic landscape of hundred-story-high buildings with proud, rounded shoulders and breathtaking, sky-spanning footbridges, cast in soft pinks and yellows by an abundance of tethered, softly glowing globes.
Hovercars of different sizes and shapes sailed effortlessly through the spired landscape, looking like graceful, exotic fish in the depths of an alien ocean. As for foliage dark blue trees and shrubs were everywhere, defining spacious, ground-level plazas and overhanging public balconies, filling the air with a pleasant, slightly tart fragrance.
Picard had never been here before. And yet, it seemed to him that he had been here, or at least someplace very much like it.
And he knew why. As a cadet at Starfleet Academy, he had studied many thingsarchaeology, drama, and astrophysics, to name a few. He had also developed more than a passing interest in architecture.
In the year 2064, a year before the S.S. Valiant left Earth orbit, a Frenchman named Goimard had unveiled his vision for rebuilding a world that had been wracked by its third World War. Unfortunatelyat least from Picards point of viewthat vision had only blossomed in dribs and drabs, a series of perhaps thirty buildings in nearly as many locations.
Evidently, he reflected, one of the Valiants survivors had been a Goimard aficionadobecause here, on a planet a great many light-years from Earth, the Frenchmans dream had been realized in all its glory. Picard felt compelled to smile at the irony.
Not bad for a ragtag band of survivors, Ben Zoma quipped.
Theyve had almost three hundred years to build, Picard reminded him. This place could be thirty years older than our colony on Mars.
Welcome to Magnia, said Williamson.
The second officer turned and saw their host approaching them through a wide, arched set of sliding doors. In person, Williamson was considerably taller than he had appeared on the viewscreen. He was also alone a clear demonstration of trust.
Picard smiled. Magnia, he said, letting the word roll off his tongue. Goimards name for his perfect city.
The colonists eyebrows shot up. You know his work?
I do, said the second officer. And frankly, Im